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Angry... "We've actually decided that we're not going to be hiring anybody now." Thanks for stringing me along for two weeks. *******s.

Raaaah. Fluuuuueeee...

"I am the very model of a scientist Salarian,
I've studied species Turian, Asari and Batarian,
I'm quite good at genetics (as a subset of biology)
Because I am an expert (which I know is a tautology!
My xenoscience studies range from urban to agrarian,
I am the very model of a scientist Salarian!"

Tell us about this weekend of yours! The intrigue is killing me... well, that and and the time travelers who keep on shooting me.

EDIT: Seriously, tell us.

Well, I basically got to see my two dogs, which were happy to see me too. Made some Sweet Jalapeno Jelly (which I am currently eating), and went to an old time photo place with the foreign exchange student who came to visit. She chose Western theme, as shown by the picture of me below. That was about it really.

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I think I am rather dashing in the picture.
In my extremely humble opinion of course.

So apparently there's a bug going around here, cuz I'm not the first to come in with the symptoms I had. I got something similar to this last semester in February. Luckily this time it's more mild. They gave me some anti-nausea medication, and a doctor's note in case I need more, and sent me on my way.

That means you're eighteenish. US High School = Oz High School.
Final year of High School = Last year of UK college.
In both cases the next step is university. Or US college.

Ah. But. You. I, what? No. Uh. *haemorrhage of the brain*
Poetry is pure(ish) English.
Poetry is one of the oldest forms of writing and story telling in the world. If you don't understand poetry you can't properly understand English or any other language.
Language in its purest form is poetry:
"We dance in a ring and suppose
The Secret sits in the middle and knows"
That is The Secret by Robert Browning. Everything in it has to do with spelling, placement in the sentence, structure, syntax. Everything.
Why did the poet use "suppose" and "knows"? Was it the sound? Is it the subtle difference between their definitions? Is it that they're part of a lexical set of knowledge?
Does this mean the Secret is knowledge? Who is "we"? Why use the present tense inclusive plural? Why is "Secret" capitalised? Does that anthropomorphise it or tell us it's a real person? Why are "We" moving around the edges? What is so imprtant about the "Secret" that makes it the very centre of all?ALL English is meaning.
Everything is meaning.
Why does red mean danger?
Why is swearing so taboo?
It's been proven that analysing poetry enables a better grasp on language as a whole, not to mention in some aspects, culture itself. Why is the Iliad so universal that it's been around almost three thousand years? Why Gilgamesh? Why Beowulf? Poetry, whether we like it or no, is endemic of a society, of a culture and of a history.
All schools study poetry. All people know poetry. Song is poetry come again to some of its oldest roots: Bardic songs. Oral poetry with a set rhythm and pieces to enable better recollection of the song or poem.
I can't recall precisely, but if the novel is a glass or orange squash, a poem is orange juice concentrate. That was said by someone.

If you wanted to learn those basics you mention: spelling, definition, and application you shouldn't have taken it at a more developed 'basic' level. The title of the course Basic English shows in a sense just how important poetry is. Nursery rhymes; everyone knows them. They never leave you and they're poetry containing a story. Why does it stick? What's with the language that makes it impossible to forget? Reading into a story is hard not to do. Analysing poetry is using your instincts, and sharpening them to ridiculous levels as you'll see below.
Leaving it at primary in this case would be best. What you want, rather than an education and learning how to analyse anything is a dictionary and a grammar book.

This is the thing I think I have most problems with. Nothing is ever incorrect use of the English language (granted, in other languages with a strictly inflected case system (i.e. German or other Eastern European or Asian languages) or with ideograms reflecting a specific thought and idea (Japanese leaps to mind) there will be 'impossible' or unorthodox uses of language). It is 'non - standard' or 'unorthodox'.

"burgers hair sword yanking" can mean anything. "Sword yanking" - swords are almost inextricably linked with males, the masculine and inevitably the phallus. "burgers" are meat. 'Meat' is also a slang term for the penis itself (coming from the phrase 'meat 'n' two veg') not including the scrotum and other . . . bits. So "hair" could be pubic hair. Hence this 'random' collection of words can be seen as an extremely obtuse metaphor or synecdoche for masturbation.
Alternatively: "burgers" - this is the plural form of a concrete noun. It is still meat.
However, "hair" is in the singular with no use of a pronoun to indicate whether the "burgers" own it, or are doing something to it. "sword" is also singular, possibly indicating perhaps an unusual neologism of a "hair sword".
So is the "sword yanking" itself out of the burgers? In that case, who is holding the sword, why did they attack the burgers? Are they maybe some kind of activist vegans/vegetarians? What is the story behind how the sword is made of "hair"? Is it only the hilt bound in hair? This seems likely, but if the entirety of the sword is made of hair, why?
Nothing has no meaning.

You don't object to studying novels, short stories or books do you? I bet you've read and loved at least one of the following: LoTR, Harry Potter or Discworld. How do you know what's happening without the subtle hints and meanings you read into the text?
Poetry is an extremely condensed form of a book. By having a form and in some case a limit to lines, syllabes per line and other limits it makes the author apply with more finesse the intricacies of a complex language where one word can mean one hundred things depending on its placement in a sentence and every other word in the sentence, the sentences surrounding it and every other word in the entire thing.

And so ends my impassioned plea on the worth of studying poetry. P.S. I don't even like poetry very much.

DISCLAIMER: I may not have gotten The Secret entirely right. It could be 'dance in a circle and suppose'.

Why is it that you now scare me more than the possibility of nuclear war?

While I do agree that yeah, poetry itself isn't bad by nature, the stuff I'm studying is just annoying and seems to be trying to constantly press a point, invade my conciousness and kill my inner child with fire as it tells me to feel sorry for whoever the poem happens to be about, but gives me no reason to.

Some poetry works. But I don't think the stuff I'm studying does.

Also, taking my random words and giving them that incredibly disturbing meaning was incredibly disturbing. Like when you scribble on a piece of paper, put it on display and people argue about what it means.

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Awesome Avatars below thanks to the amazing Ceika!
Current Avatar done by me.

Originally Posted by kpenguin

I'm just the token penguin on the team.

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If you think you know me well enough, or just want to chat, PM me for my Skype info sometime!

Coooool. I should see if my dad would scan that picture of he and I and my sister dressed up all old-timey...

Quick belated (again ) note on weight: The hip-to-waist ratio is a better, and gender-specific, predictor of health than the BMI; you divide your waist by your hips, and for women the result should be about 0.7 while for men it should be about 0.9 (from memory). Furthermore, if you eat piles of crap (or very little), just because you're not over or underweight doesn't mean you're healthy. Cholesterol, high blood-sugar and nutrient deficiencies don't necessarily turn up in the scales.
[/hypocrisy]

Serps: is a hypocrite? I thought you was just going to kill me for mentioning dem hips dem hips dem hips.

...

Come to think of it.

Where the heck are the waist and hips located? @_@ like, properlike for measuring?

First of all, I is a hypocrite. I'm overweight, and despite knowing from experience that I can lose weight reasonably easily (at one point by barely eating, and at another by making myself walk to uni most days), I am failing to do so or to try particularly hard. All the while being constantly reminded by my mother that everything that is wrong with my life is because I'm FAT FAT FAT
...possible small exaggeration there, but I do think that I haven't had a conversation with her in a long time in which she does not at some point refer to my weight. I'm getting more pimples? "Being overweight can cause break outs." Going shopping for clothes? "No point looking there, that's a skinny girl shop." Feeling tired? "Losing weight can give you more energy." Snoring? "It's often caused by being overweight." I'm having a last-minute binge on low-fat biscuits because I just looked in the mirror and noticed that I've put on a bit of weight and need to start watching myself? "You're getting fat." Getting my photo taken? "Take it from above, so we can look up and avoid chin-wrinkles." I have two pairs of pants that I've bought with her, and they're both far too big. What does that say about how she makes me feel?
<.<
I've been wanting to get that rant out for a bit... What was I talking about, again? Oh yeah, hips and waist. I'm a bit iffy on it myself, but there's plenty of guides on the 'net. Seems to basically be the narrowest part of your waist - normally somewhere near the navel - and the biggest part of your hips - I think near the top of the pubic area.
Oh, and I'll have you know I'm quite proud of my good, sturdy child-bearing hips